Posted: Thu 08 Mar 2012, 21:39 Post subject:
These distros do EVERYTHING that a Microsoft/Apple PC does!Subject description: Can we do it?

Appeal to the Puppy Community to those who are in any position to help
The text, enclosed in this post, is both an Announcement and an Appeal to our community.

AnnouncementTHE PUPPY that does Everything that a Microsoft PC or an Apple PC does without the need to install anything. These system deliver an Out-Of-The-Box (OOTB) experience that provides LAN services and shareing along with its traditional desktop user services, that is equivalent to what is found in Mocrosoft and Apple desktop laptop PCs systems.

I have been around in the Puppy forum community since 2005. I am not a distro builder. Nor am I a applications developer. This community has great, great people who do wonderful jobs at that to the benefit of all of us.

Puppy has been maturing a lot over the years. Much thanks goes to this forum community members who have contributed immensely in what it has become.

In its start, there were many still running 486s. Today, almost all new members are arriving in Puppyland equipped with P4s at a minimum and many are running much, much, much faster PCs. When Puppy started it was addressing PC of 128NB+. Today, no new member that I have witnessed has entered Puppyland with such small memory size such that most, if not all come here with 1GB+ RAM.

In an initial effort to run such a small OS on such a small RAM platform over such a small link to the internet, Puppy had to take some very clever steps to meet those PC sizes. Today, some PUPs are evolving as they mature to reach the PCs that are in existence since 2006 to now. Further, many older PCs dating back to 2000 can benefit by added RAM which many members have done cheaply. (I have a P4 with 4GB of PAM, for example)

Everything that a Microsoft-Apple PC does without the need to install anything.

I have been running the LightHouse distros for several years. It was created by one of our community members who has fallen ill. I hope its not a terminal illness, but in his last message to us it appears to be grave. He and I had corresponded over his achievements in Puppyland since before his 32bit Lighthouse502 distro. He has always been a great guiding light during his 32bit development in 502 and 503. After completion of 503, in discussion on RAM in the forum, his attention turned from the 32bit series of Lighthouse progressions to 64bit. His distros for unique and blazing in the scope he brought to the 64bit community. It wasn't just another distro, it was "over the top" in its design, offering, product mix, boot process for initial ISO system usage (Live/Frugal/Full), a complete single screen localization effort at initial and subsequent use, a unique update tool, straight-forward desktop layout and Menu selections, along with an ability to address 32bit Window apps should a need exist. One of my LightHouse platforms has NOT been rebooted since I did an initial save-session to "contain' all or those used to create my desktop workspace. Its blazing fast and just runs and runs and runs.

In his latest version 5.14, he made a "Christmas Present to all of us" as he released a version that allows any device received at Christmas (or earlier) which talks to Microsoft/Apple, to share and use items with LightHouse64. This among other nifty items is one of the greatest contribution from an OOTB distro ever produced in our community.

I think each and everyone of us can appreciate that this is a Herculean feat. For we have someone with failing health cobble together one of the greatest achievements this community has ever witnessed. An OOTB COMPLETE REPLACEMENT FOR MICROSOFT/APPLE and you don't even has to install it because you can run it from your Live media (CD/DVD) saving your work to the Live media as you go.

Here's where our community can help itself and help ths member out. Since his health is failing, we can assist in several areas:

Provide coverage of his LightHouse distro (versions 5.03, the 32bit and versions 5.14, the 64bit) while he is struggling to recover.

We could anticipate that our help may mean to attempt recreation to carry-on his work his latest and greatest achievement

I have some personal reasons for the desire (or need) to run a RAM based OS on any PC. This goes back to my days of DOS in the beginning, to OS2, to Citrix to Knoppix to Puppy to one other newer distro which also is pushing for recognition. This grew out of a mainframe design spec I wrote over 31 years ago (not publicly published). Then, in the subsequent years, I was able to test this and bring it to implementation on several of the production mainframes of that era demonstrating significant opening of windows for workload management and increased transaction rates.

There is no doubt, today, that properly designed RAM based systems provides ample room for additions, expansions, and use. This is very clear to all vendors, today, who build hand-held products. These "real-time" systems will only continue to become the diections for business and consumer, alike. In fact, there never was a view in business of consumers. There is "Business"; the notion of consumers is really one of the business models that businesses approach. This is because products are a universal tool that merely expands in the audience who find use for it. And we see this over and over again in the technology arenas.

Lighhouse64 is a distro that has been designed from the "ground-up" to be a Linux RAM based system which, OOTB, does EVERYTHING you get from a Microsoft-Apple PC. .... Everything!

Further, my most personal of reasons is the humanitarian side that says if we can helps someone who may have fallen, lets pick and continue as a tribute to what has been provided for our stability and comfort. Let's do it to help a fellow comrade in a way which doesn't take anything from any of us.

in looking at his last message to the forum, he was humble and apologetic for his deteriorating condition. But he left us with a gem, that I think this community might be able to support and extend.

If you have a 64bit PC and you haven't looked at this, you may be thrilled, should you. I encourage anyone new to Puppy or Lighthouse64 to start with Mariner, for it is the most comprehensive in its deliver. If you are like me and others, you may notice that you'll never have needed to install anything to use an office suite, an Internet suite, and all the other items that OOTB you get from Microsoft-Apple.

And if you can help in any way, please do what you can such that this effort continues to push Puppy maturity forward for everyone.

My thanks goes out to TaZoC and my well wishes continue to be sent. And thanks in advance for anything anyone of us can do to help on the forum with LightHouse64 Mariner

Here to help
Edited 2013/3/01 Forum member Nooby raises a concern that he believes the intent of the title implies the runinng of all aftermarket programs and services that can be added to Microsoft or Apple. So the 1st main paragraph of this document intends to shed light as to how these PUPs compare with Vendor OSes. The thread was put together to highlight the additional features which are missing in Puppyland distros in an OOTB experience. The distro that are mentioned have a current SAMBA component sucht that the OOTB experience from the distro mentiond are equivlent LAN PC with matchings services and functionality.

Hopefully, this satisfies his concern._________________Get ACTIVE Create Circles; Do those good things which benefit people's needs!
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3 Different Puppy Search Enginesor use DogPileLast edited by gcmartin on Fri 01 Mar 2013, 01:23; edited 2 times in total

TaZoc,
If you are still coming onto the forum sometimes, and read this, I hope you recover quickly!

To those who don't know, TaZoc has been with us for over five years, contributing innovative ideas, and of course Lighthouse Pup.

TaZoc also created a system-check script, that is now in Woof -- TaZoc sent me a pm late last year about planning to improve that script, but I heard nothing after that and wondered what had happened -- now I know._________________http://bkhome.org/news/

Thank you for the news about TaZoc. I wish he gets well and is soon back in this forum. I got to know Lighthouse Puppy when I was looking for some video editing solution. I think it is a very elegant distro, with very nifty details (I love the uptime report during the shutdown process, for example).

My life is quite random these days, and what you propose, yet beautiful, is still vast and a bit vague. I'm not sure I can stably commit to a project like this right now, but I'll keep an eye on this thread and everything Lighthouse related, in case one day I can cross the line from being a hurdle to the project to contribute consistent help.

There is a small bug I found in Rox, now that I think of it; my Lighthouse version is 4.43 d_mariner, I don't know if it is been solved later; I have applied the solution only in regular Puppy 4.3.1. Here is the resource, fwiw:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=75552

I was messing around with some tiny flat file wikis, working on a little wiki for Fatdog64, and uploaded a few Fatdog files to my little webspace, and am currently working on mirroring some of TaZ's stuff, too (gotta download more first), and now this.

I always tested Pup on the lower end machines because that is what I had. Recently I acquired a couple old dual cores and fell in love with Fatdog and was getting ready to try the 64 bit Lighthouse on them, so I'm poised for testing (if that can help), along with some space and bandwidth I can spare at a couple domains.

Don't know what else I can offer to help out, but whatever it is, if it's for TaZoc, I'm game to give it a try!

Praying you're better soon, TaZoc! Since Lighthouse 3 you always were a Puppian SuperStar to me. Bless you ever so much, and many thanks to ya for so much you've given me right along with everyone else. I feel somehow blessed whenever I boot to one of your releases and I hope I'll see ya posting soon.

I am curious, I admit, as to what TaZoc's illness is...? (Pardon the nosiness!) Sounds like he's done a lot of really nice things, although I've never had a system fancy enough to be able to use with Lighthouse (it's 64b only, right?)..._________________

I am curious, I admit, as to what TaZoc's illness is...? (Pardon the nosiness!) Sounds like he's done a lot of really nice things, although I've never had a system fancy enough to be able to use with Lighthouse (it's 64b only, right?)...

There are 2 major contributions from him; namely 64bit (V5.14) and 32bit. His 32bit version from last summer still is a PREMIER distro in this community. Take a moment and you'll be impressed. Its 5.03G at top of page on his site LHPUP.org. And, there's a forum available.

But, be aware that his 64bit is the one that I reference as a full OOTB Microsoft/Apple replacement without the need to install anything.

Hope this helps_________________Get ACTIVE Create Circles; Do those good things which benefit people's needs!
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3 Different Puppy Search Enginesor use DogPile

I'm booted up on an old Pavilion a1712n with a Gig of RAM and 4 gigs of frugal goodness and at least one swap partition. (I've taken to adding a Linux swap every time I format any healthy sized drives anymore - just in case. So there's always at least one on this sys, sometimes more, and I forgot to notice the swap count when I booted - I think it's two, though).

Even with only one Gig of RAM everything is pretty smooth even though I've got twice as many more sfs files loaded than I've ever run on old Fatdog boot before.

I wanted to use the other box because it has 2 gigs of RAM, but the optical drives seem to only work when they choose, so once it's booted to something it gets pretty much left that way. Hoped to get it to boot from this DVD, but for some reason it couldn't find L64-514.sfs once I did get it to fire. (I have gotten around that in the past by booting to something else and copying the sfs to the root of the hard drive and reboot to whatever I was attempting before. Rarely has that not been an adequate workaround in that situation. ) I'll keep working on that, 'cause if I can get it to boot from this DVD I'll set up a proper boot manager and just boot off the HDD.

OK, just opened Writer and it runs at a stately pace. More RAM is going to be recommended for stuff like that, but it still works even if it isn't exactly snappy. Been streaming a long playlist off the toobs the whole time I've been working on this post. For just a web surfer, one Gig of RAM might be OK.

TaZ has outdone himself on this puppy. No wonder gcmartin's hair is on fire!

P. S. My domain is down because I need to talk to Register dot com when the bank opens in the morning. I should have figured out to call them when I couldn't ftp in this afternoon.

I seem to remember a discussion where I contended that:
- There are lots of harmful things that Microsoft does which no Puppy ever will.
- In terms of helpful things, any Puppy does a vast number of things out of the box that Microsoft does not. About the only things it doesn't have out of the box are a remotedesktop viewer, and file and printer sharing.
_________________If you have or know of a good gtkdialog application, please post a link here

BUT, you cannot boot Mariner! The process will not allow the booting of Mariner!!! You can boot Lighthouse (just make sure the ISO is NOT the Mariner version.)

LightHouse will do everything FATDOG does AND it has the latest SAMBA such that ANY device that will connect to a Microsoft/Apple PC will also work with LightHouse.

Hope this helps_________________Get ACTIVE Create Circles; Do those good things which benefit people's needs!
We are all related ... Its time to show that we know this!
3 Different Puppy Search Enginesor use DogPile

Ditto all appreciative comments on TaZoc's LHP series. He is incredibly talented and does amazing work, with great attention to detail...i've run earlier 32-bit versions on an IBM T40P lappie and the more recent LHP-64 on an Intel Mac without any issues.

My thanks to you, TaZoc, and my best wishes for greatly-improved health in the near future._________________The mud-elephant, wading thru the sea, leaves no tracks..

Downloaded Lighthouse64 for trying out. My netbook is on the fritz, and if I replace it I'm going to want to stop being a hypocrite and move to puppy primarily... instead of Windblows XP.

I do have one system it will run on...

BTW, what is Mariner?

@TaZoC has presented his distros in each incarnation as a "base" distro and one called "Mariner"

Base is a bootable system and ALL PETs or packages will need to be downloaded should you need them. Base intends to be full-featured 64bit PUPPY and intends to be a smaller ISO to be downloaded ONLY.

Mariner is a bootable system which has everything the base provides with a subset of Packages built into the ISO so that you do NOT NEED TO DOWNLOAD them from the internet. As I remember, I believe its some 8-9 packages that when you boot a LIVE media, it will ask you which/all of the packages you want loaded from the CD/DVD you are booting from.

Booting from Live media (CD/DVD) you will have NO PROBLEMS booting either of these 2 incarnations. For example, I have only rebooted my LightHouse64 Mariner system once, to create a save-session on the Live media that adds the 2 PETs needed to add Netboot server to my LH64. Now, should I ever need, if I reboot, it will have ALL of the packages intact in the system at boot time without my needing to go to the Internet again. My LH64 system is stable, fast, and fully featured!

I add the warning because should anyone use a PXE netboot server, the netboot system hiccups when it tries to reference packages that are usually found with Mariner. But, with the base when using PXE netboot you have no such problem.

Netbooting is a way to boot any other LAN PC without using its local media. (For example, I would be able to boot your PC on the fritz without touching its DVD drive or putting ANYTHING on your HDD/USB or....) Netbooting gets the total OS over the LAN and does NOT require local media for booting.

So in essence, I have a system that does everything a Windows Server would do without spending the $1000 for Microsoft's software to do the same thing. (Well, almost everything....we still cannot do multi-media desktop serving from any Puppy, to date).

Hope this helps_________________Get ACTIVE Create Circles; Do those good things which benefit people's needs!
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3 Different Puppy Search Enginesor use DogPile

BTW I found what is probably a bit of a bug in the LHP universal installer -- namely that it sees ANY ext partition (ext2/3/4) as ext4! The obvious workaround is to only install on ext4 partitions, but that makes me a little nervous. I've not known Puppy to like ext4..._________________

BTW I found what is probably a bit of a bug in the LHP universal installer -- namely that it sees ANY ext partition (ext2/3/4) as ext4! The obvious workaround is to only install on ext4 partitions, but that makes me a little nervous. I've not known Puppy to like ext4...

I cannot confirm or deny this statement since all my installations are manual frugal installations. However, LHP is extremely stable on ext4 partitions, in fact that is true for all the latest's pups due somewhat to TazOC's pioneering effort. I've also have LHP as frugal installations on ext3 and ntfs partitions with no problems.

I totally agree with what gcmartin has said about LHP, both the 32bit 503 version and the 64bit 514 version. Both are as good or better than anything available now and is the only pup that comes with a KDE4 desktop if desired. I pray that TazOC will soon regain his heath and return, he is missed. His innovations have pushed the state of art for puppy users for many years and he has continued to put out quality products. One of his many innovations was the switch to use the faster, more stable ext4 partitions and the corresponding 4fs save files.

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